Mile Markers

What is it like to ride a bike for money in a big city? Can you really build a bicycle out of bamboo? Who was the first person to pedal a penny-farthing around the world?

Through personal anecdotes and reported pieces, Robert Isenberg takes us on a winding journey on two wheels. Here we learn the potential of "airless tires", what car racks say about our social status, and whether paratroopers should be equipped with mountain bikes. We meet the engineer who invented the smallest folding bicycle and the Victorian woman who risked everything to ride. And just when we reach the end of the road, we find new technology that carries cyclists into their golden years.

Mile Markers is a lyrical and good-humored celebration of the bicycle, from the perspective of a middle-aged father with an average physique and outsized curiosity. Like a meandering jaunt around the neighborhood, this is a book for regular riders--folks who are happy just to climb onto that saddle and see what's out there.